What should the future of British foreign policy look like? For too long successive governments have shied away from acknowledging uncomfortable truths about the decline of Britain's military capabilities. As we approach the middle years of the twenty-first century a new set of urgent and daunting challenges - including climate change, technological development and the rise of AI, and a growing threat from China - lie ahead, making the need for us to reconcile ourselves with our position in the world more acute. In this persuasively argued book, Simon McDonald shows how the UK's significant soft-power strengths can be harnessed to expand our international influence. Such a shift will only be possible, he says, if we first acknowledge the challenges of Brexit and the need to reduce our unrealistic hard-power ambitions. Excellence in areas that other countries care about will keep the UK internationally relevant in the second half of the century in a way that nostalgia for a lost pre-eminence will not.

When Abraham Lincoln said, ‘You can be anything you want to be,’ Americans, and eventually everybody everywhere, lifted their sights. Nowadays anybody can aspire to be a leader, and nearly everybody has to lead sometimes. In Leadership, Simon McDonald assumes that thinking about leadership before you lead helps you to lead better. No matter the circumstances in which we might be called to lead – be it at work, on the sports field, or in the community – the example of top leaders in politics and public service (both their successes and shortcomings) can help you figure out your own approach. As the head of HM Diplomatic Service, McDonald was responbile for over 14,000 staff in 270 posts worldwide, worked for six foreign secretaries, and saw five prime ministers operate at close quarters. Observing these people undertaking the most important and often the most difficult work in the country, he saw the behaviours that helped them to achieve their objectives, and those which hindered them.

When a university librarian is mugged and robbed of his winnings outside a casino, DS Alistair MacRae assumes that it was an opportunistic crime, But when other incidents involving him occur, MacRae wonders whether there are other reasons for the crime When the man is murdered, MacRae is sure he knows who is responsible. But DCI Ian Forsyth has a better solution arrived at by the use of logical deduction. When the fingerprints from the front man in a financial scam are found at the scene of a murder, it is assumed that the victim was his immediate superior in the scam. When two further people with shady financial backgrounds are also killed, MacRae believes that a man who lost heavily in the scam is responsible. But Forsyth arrives at a different conclusion, is able to interpret a clue left by the last victim and thus comes up with the proof that will convince a jury that his solution is the correct one.

When Abraham Lincoln said, 'You can be anything you want to be,' Americans, and eventually everybody everywhere, lifted their sights. Nowadays anybody can aspire to be a leader, and nearly everybody has to lead sometimes. In his first book, Simon McDonald assumes that thinking about leadership before you lead helps you to lead better. No matter the circumstances in which we might be called to lead - be it at work, on the sports field, or in the community - the example of top leaders in politics and public service (both their successes and shortcomings) can help you figure out your own approach. Over nearly four decades in HM Diplomatic Service, Simon worked for four permanent under-secretaries and a dozen senior ambassadors before becoming permanent under-secretary himself and leading the Service (which has over 14,000 staff in 270 countries worldwide) for five years. He also worked directly for six foreign secretaries and saw five prime ministers work at close quarters. Observing these people undertaking the most important and often the most difficult work in the country, Simon saw the behaviours which helped them achieve their objectives, and those which hindered them. He then had the chance to try to apply that learning. In a closing chapter that considers the future of leadership in the UK, Simon McDonald makes a compelling case for the reform of the monarchy, the cabinet, civil service and, in particular, the House of Lords, of which he has been a member since 2021. Leadership of the United Kingdom is being debated as never before. This book is a clear-sighted and insightful contribution to that debate.